This extremely readable volume completes a masterwork: the first scholarly comprehensive history of the United States since the early years of this century. Beginning with the election of Franklin Roosevelt and concluding with the Reagan years, the author weaves vignettes of social and cultural history around a core of politics and foreign policy dramatically presented. Although Mr. Burns is acclaimed for his earlier two-volume biography of Roosevelt, the best chapter in this volume is on the downfall of Richard Nixon. Prediction: The Crosswinds of Freedom will win a major prize.